Posts tagged Proteus

Update! Endymion will be foregoing the Canal Street loop because of inclement weather.

The threat of heavy rain and thunderstorms on Saturday evening has forced NOMTOC, Tucks and Iris to switch days to Sunday and Monday. Endymion and Chewbacchus are still planning to roll today. Depending on how the weather fares this afternoon, Endymion could switch to Sunday night, following Bacchus.

Libation Dispensing R2D2

Endymion on Canal Street!

As it stands now, NOMTOC and Iris will roll before Okeanos early tomorrow morning, and Tucks will roll before Proteus on Monday at 3 pm, followed by Orpheus.

Endymion has announced they plan to roll at 5:30 pm today on their traditional Canal Street route.

First of all, I don’t cover the West Bank or Metairie parades. I stick to uptown & downtown New Orleans.

It’s been a very competitive year in the world of Carnival New Orleans. Lots of excellent and some unexpected throws, even old school Proteus threw a cool Light Up necklace! Plush animals, monsters, swords, etc. were prevalent as were Light Up beads & medallions. The medallions come in every conceivable size & variety. Rex & Proteus medallions are long beads with small krewe insignias interspersed.

Many beautiful floats by numerous krewes in several different styles, old line traditional to super krewe. Many krewes had strong bands from all over the metro area and some krewes had many bands from out of town. One parade had 6 Memphis bands! There were parade day & time changes, including 2 cancellations, due to inclement weather and the Super Bowl.

Last year’s top ranking went to Muses, and the top throw went to D’Etat. We’re adding Krewe du Vieux into the rankings with an asterisk since they roll outside the standard parade season. During the parade season, the Saints Super Bowl Parade rolled, so they get into the rankings also this season. However the Saints parade earns an asterisk, because it only occurs when the Saints advance to a ‘certain’ level.

Where are the majority of all these fabulous krewe throws manufactured? China. A few glass beads might come from India. That means they have to be ordered months in advance as a rule to allow time for possible changes and corrections. There are rush orders all the time as Mardi Gras approaches. Most orders have enough time to come by boat. It is hard to keep track of the best throws, as some are thrown by a single large float or walking group. For example, Bacchus has several floats with their own throw. Good luck catching or even seeing a single float throw. I’m switching from Throw of the Year to Float of the Year because of this factor.

1. Saints Super Bowl Victory Parade*- Turnout for this parade was huge, the most the route could handle. A truly SUPER parade by most accounts. Thousands & thousands of Saints fans got stuck in gigantic traffic jams trying to get to the parade. The floats were a collection of the top floats of all the top krewes; the bands were the best bands in the area; the float riders were the World Champion New Orleans Saints, fresh from their Super Bowl victory and the Saints organization. The throws were very special because of who was throwing them. Media coverage for this parade promoted the Who Dat Nation to the entire world- CNN & ESPN, as well as all local network stations carried the parade live with top commentary. This parade is rated #1 partially because of the positive effect it had on the City of New Orleans reputation, as well as the actual parade. The Saints first Super Bowl win was the highest rated TV program in the history of US ratings. That’s the ultimate free PR! All the media with rights to the game had endless hours to fill, including a lot of ‘filler’ about New Orleans and the Who Dat Nation. Same with the cable giants who showed the parade live with great commentary.

More than 250 Saints players, coaches and staff members threw beads, footballs, etc. from a dozen of the area’s cream of the cream Mardi Gras floats. “I think that was the only time you’ll ever see all these floats together at one time, and very well could be the last time you ever see all these floats together,” said Barry Kern, president of Blaine Kern Studios, which oversaw the event. Included will be the signature floats of Endymion, Bacchus, Rex, Zulu, Alla, Caesar, Tucks, Muses, Orpheus and Babylon, he said.

The parade featured dozens of local marching bands and theYingYangTwins performing their Super Dome Saints Anthem, here’s a youtube link to Halftime (Stand Up & Get Crunk).

Barry Kern says we may never see all these floats together again, just wait until the next Saints or Hornets League Championship game. These floats and riders are the standard for Super Super Parades, a new class of NOLA parade.

Saints Super Bowl Parade AP

2. Proteus- Built by Royal Artists, and lit by historic flambeaux, Proteus was the best looking old line traditional parade. They looked beautiful as evidenced by the 2 float pictures below. The fish & water concept is beautifully carried out from stem to stern. The float featured roiling water waves and one heck of a fish paint job! Leave a comment if you have a picture of a better looking float, I may amend my ratings. This Proteus Fish float is deemed FLOAT OF THE YEAR, because it’s the best float I saw all season.

The float is in the set up area, the parade hasn’t begun yet. A wooden wagon wheel is visible in the lower right hand corner of the picture. Proteus entered the 21 Century of throws with their Light Up Sea Horse necklace with triple red lights. This is a big addition for an old line krewe like Proteus, as Light Up necklaces and other Light Up Throws are currently the rage. Proteus doesn’t usually bend, nor does Rex, to the latest throw craze. The lights work best with evening parades limiting the market for them.

They had roughly a dozen bands led by the US Marine Corps Band. Proteus keeps their masks on, and their identities secret. They use the oldest, original flambeaux and the old wagon wooden chassis for their floats.

Proteus is the only night time krewe left from the 19th century. The other two parading krewes from the 19th century, Comus and Momus, stopped after the New Orleans City Council interfered with their operations in the early 1990s. Proteus stopped also, but started parading again in 2000. Comus still holds their ball Fat Tuesday evening, their meeting with Rex’s Court at Midnight is broadcast live by WYES TV in New Orleans.

2010 Proteus Fish Float

2010 Proteus Fish Float Closeup

3. Tie, Endymion & Muses- Endymion has plenty of super floats, such as Captain Eddie’s S.S. Endymion, a five tandem float depicting a 150 foot steamboat and carries a live band plus 200 riders; Papa Joe’s S.S. Endymion is a replica of a Mississippi River steamboat and 56 feet long; Creature Feature is 120 feet long and carries the sub krewe “Krewe of Yats” with its own set of doubloons and other throws. The Budweiser Clydesdale Horses and The St. Augustine Purple Knights were featured in the parade, along with more than two dozen other Marching Bands. They have the most “Super Floats”- 25 spectacular Super-Tandem Floats let by celebrity Grand Marshal Tom Benson, wife Gayle, granddaughter Rita Benson LeBlanc, they had Saints players also. The whole idea with Endymion is huge size is better, and in their case, it’s true. The floats aren’t rolling works of art like some of Royal Artists’ work, they are painted with a much broader brush. They have 39 total floats, making them the longest Mardi Gras parade, I believe.

Muses- I think the world of Muses throws, they have many unique throws. Their decorated shoe is beginning to rival the Zulu coconut as the most coveted throw in Mardi Gras. Some of their throws can pass for costume jewelry. They have many original marching groups- the Flying Elvi, Pussyfooters, 610 Stompers, Camel Toe Lady Steppers, and Muff-a- Lottas all marched with Muses. Muses lost some of their bands in 2010 because of rescheduling due to inclement weather. Muses has several signature floats, including The Shoe, The Sirens, and The Bathtub.

Muses Bathtub Float

Muses is a satirical krewe, making fun of all the corruption around us, and much more. They used the new type of flambeaux utilizing gas. Muses women keep their masks on while riding. Instead of Saints players or Saints owners, Muses is hosting the wives of Saints players on their own float.

4. Tie, Bacchus & Krewe du Vieux*- KdV is a very unique adult parade- they parade in the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny. 17 mules pull their floats, and it is completely comprised of sub krewes, like the one I’m in, Krewe of Underwear. KdV is much raunchier in their parody. One problem with KdV is all sub krewes pick their float theme independently based on the central krewe theme. This sounds like a good thing, but in practice, almost half the 17 floats condemned New Orleans outgoing Mayor Ray C. Nagin. That’s satirical overkill. Our float had Ray Nagin Edwin Edwards, Bill Jefferson, etc. burning in hell.

2010 Krewe of Underwear float, KdV

KVD floats are constructed as professionally as any floats out there. No professional float builders, just experienced float builders who have been building their own float by hand and executing their krewe’s ideas for years. Annual float building for a KdV krewe is the back door to an education in float building. KdV throws a lot of unique, one of kind, hand made throws. 1 member had a bunch of pocket size wooden matchstick boxes decorated with purple, green and gold beads, including a tiny gold crown as centerpiece on each box.

Detail of Dr. John's Float, 2010 KdV

They have brass marching bands exclusively, and they have 18 of them. My krewe had the terrific Panorama Jazz Band featuring Ben Schenk marching behind our float- a perfect parade accompaniment. KdV has a lot of novel throws that some sub krewes hand make, or order a small lot of 500 or 1,000 units. In total number, I would estimate that KdV has a couple of dozen unique, limited edition throws scattered throughout the sub krewes.

KdV mission statement

Bacchus- Bacchus is the original Super Krewe- they were the first krewe to have Celebrity Kings (Danny Kaye was the first in 1967), and the first to ‘Super Size’ their floats. The Celebrity King angle brought a new level of publicity to Carnival as a whole, because the entertainment media picked up the Danny Kaye story. Floats used to hold no more than 20 or so riders. Some Super Floats today with 5 or so sections might hold 20o riders! 2010 saw Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees of the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints as King. Brees is hotter than a pistol since the Saints won the Super Bowl and he became MVP of the game. Bacchus first Super Float in 1972 was Bacchasaurus; they rolled Super Floats in the French Quarter before parades were banned. They looked great rolling down St. Charles Avenue to a large, enthusiastic crowd that been out there for 6 or 8 hours, enjoying a whole bunch of parades that preceded Bacchus Sunday.

Their icon Super Floats include Baccha-Amore, Bacchatality, Bacchawoppa, King King & Family, & the Bacchagator. They annually have great attractions like the Budweiser Clydesdale Horses and great bands like Southern University, St. Augustine’s Marching Band, US Marine Corps Band, and McDonough 35. Bacchus is the biggest parade rolling down St. Charles Avenue and as usual, they provided the biggest show. Bacchus’ influence on Mardi Gras parades has been large- all Super Krewes came from Bacchus. The only other parade that goes down St. Charles that rivals Bacchus in size is Orpheus, another Super Krewe co-founded by musician/singer Harry Connick, Jr.

Bacchus’ big size may have influenced the 1973 New Orleans City Council decision to ban Mardi Gras parades from the French Quarter. The new larger floats might block emergency vehicles from reaching all corners of the Quarter. This was a good thing, Mardi Gras parades had outgrown the narrow French Quarter streets, and for the public safety a shift to wider streets outside the Quarter was due. The very first parade I saw in New Orleans came by my house on Rampart Street by the Quarter in 1975, it was quite an experience.

Now for the down side of Bacchus. This year I witnessed and received many reports of riders smoking on floats (dangerous and illegal), of unmasked riders (against krewe policy and the spirit of MG), and of members encouraging flashing (illegal and gross), especially around small children.

I’ve also heard reports that some senior Bacchus members are not happy with this behavior and will attempt to change it before next Carnival Season. This is very encouraging.

5. Rex- There is only one King of Carnival, one Monarch of Merriment, and that’s Rex. Their colors are purple (justice), Green (faith) and Gold (power). These colors are said to have been chosen by the Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch Romanoff of Russia during a visit to New Orleans in 1872. This theory was given credence in 1892, when the Rex parade theme “Symbolism of Colors” gave the colors their meanings. Rex is a paradox- a Super Krewe that rolls on 19th Centuy wooden wagon wheels. This is ‘Official Mardi Gras’ at its most surreal.

Rex has key Mardi Gras Super icon Floats- the Jester, Boeuf Gras (fatted ox), an ancient symbol of the great feast the day before Lent, The Streetcar Named Desire, and His Majesty’s Royal Calliope. These key Super floats also roll on wooden wagon chassis with wooden wagon wheels. These wheels are now repaired in Texas since the local wooden wheel smith, Earl moved on.

19th Century Wooden Wagon Wheel

They threw high quality plush Riding Lieutenant dolls in 3 colors, a plush Boeuf Gras, and a plush crown. The Lieutenant dolls are way more complex than the Boeuf Gras or Crown, since they represent people, not animals or objects. The cups they threw are degradable, meaning Rex gets some green points here. What the cup degrades into is the big question as to how many points they get. Rex krewe members wear their masks and behave in a civil manner while riding and representing the krewe. I’m pretty sure there were large & small sizes for the enlarged plush line.

Rex Jester Float

Rex Boeuf Gras Float

6. Zulu- Zulu is an icon parade with icon floats and an historic, original icon throw. They have great bands, and are more democratic as a krewe than most krewes. The membership votes for the key positions in Their hand decorated coconut was alone for decades as the most sought after throw in all of Carnival- its cache is only growing. Their Witch Doctor, Big Shot, and Governor floats are almost as much a part of Mardi Gras parade history as the Boeuf Gras. New Orleans Saints receivers Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem, along with retired running back Deuce McAllister, rode in Zulu this year. Zulu has great bands, including the US Marine Marching Band, St. Augustine Marching Knights, Edna Carr, and Sarah Reed.

Very notable this year, Zulu started on time for first time in decades! There may be a reason for this startling shift in start times. Zulu parade’s tail end and the beginning of Rex meet up at the corner of St. Charles and Jackson Avenues. As Zulu was an historically late starter, Rex might be stuck waiting for Zulu to pass before continuing their way down St. Charles. Over the years, Zulu must have heard some complaints about being late and holding Rex up, and they may have tired of this. Zulu is a big parade with a lot of floats and roughly a dozen marching groups, like the Zulu Tramps. An assist goes to WDSU’s Parade Tracker Service, which texts parade updates when you opt in to their free service. They texted me when the parade began.

The Supreme Lame Duck, the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray C. Nagin, is a member of Zulu. He led the parade on horseback along with a detachment of NOPD mounted police. He’s done this for at least several years. Who wants to see this lousy soon to be ex-mayor at the start of the Mardi Gras Day? Nothing against Zulu for having him in their krewe.

Lame Duck New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin

Start of Zulu Parade

Zulu has an amazing pot luck ball- everyone brings their favorite dish and the eating is delicious. Most other Mardi Gras balls are catered, and the food varies considerably.

Zulu was honored by the Louisiana Lottery Corporation in 2010. There was a Zulu Scratch Off Game featuring the Witch Doctor, King, and Big Shot characters. You could win up to $10,000 playing. I bought 1 and won nothing.

Zulu had the first celebrity King more than 25 years before Bacchus got started. In 1949, Louis Armstrong, a notable New Orleans native, came back to town to be anointed king of Zulu. He wore black face and a grass skirt and tossed coconuts, one of which, he later recalled, left a new Cadillac with a sizable new dimple. While Zulu was first with a celebrity King, it has not been their tradition to have celebrity Kings. Bacchus has had a celebrity King every year since they started in 1967 with Danny Kaye.

2010 was among the most unique Mardi Gras on record. As Twelfth Night passed, the 2010 Carnival Season began and the Saints wound their way through the NFL playoffs. It became a real possibility that our local pro football team might end up in the Big Game. As it happened, the Saints WON Super Bowl XLIV 30-17, during Carnival 2010, handily beating the favored Indianapolis Colts, led by favorite athletic son Peyton Manning.

Coach Payton with Saints Super Bowl Trophy

Meanwhile, a very important Mayor’s election occurred the day before the Super Bowl, and favorite son Mitch Landrieu received 67% of the vote, and avoided the usual runoff when all the candidates get below 50%. 67% is huge win by any stretch of the imagination. So the Super Bowl win occurred during Carnival, and the new Mayor was voted in a landslide, which rarely occurs in the fractured politics of New Orleans. Landrieu is the first white Mayor of New Orleans since his father in the 1970s.

Mayor elect Mitch Landrieu

Drew Brees in action

The crowd on St. Charles for Bacchus and several other parades now rivals the Fat Tuesday crowd. Okeanos, Mid-City and Thoth all roll around late morning-early afternoon. Bacchus rolls at 5:15, and easily takes three hours to pass, ending around 8:30 pm. Minimal time on St. Charles, assuming all parades are attended, is 9 hours. Mardi Gras Day on St. Charles ends after the trucks pass, around 3 pm. Rex passes around 11 am. Total time parading on St. Charles above Jackson is 4-5 hours. Below Jackson add Zulu to the total hours, now 6.5 hours. Fat Tuesday, the culmination of the Carnival Season, always has been the big day for parades. Now, Bacchus Sunday is far longer. The consolidation of neighborhood parade routes plus the desire of Krewes to roll on the weekend has caused this.

Bacchus Sunday crowd on St.Charles Ave.

2010 saw inclement weather shift the parade schedule. Chaos cancelled, Babylon became a day parade, and Muses followed three other parades. Rescheduling means most of a parade’s bands can’t make it. Other parades changed days, changed starting times, and one canceled because of the Super Bowl.

Another less positive parade trend came to the fore during Carnival 2010- parades passing in under 2 hours! One major parade will all its units passed in under one hour! Up to last year, parades almost always took a leisurely three hours on average. What’s the rush? If a parade has rescheduled, up to half the parade’s units may be lost, shortening a parade accordingly.

Many float riders don’t keep their masks on. This trend has been creeping into Mardi Gras for several years. Of course the ‘rules’ say masking is mandatory but who enforces that kind for rule in the make believe Carnival world?

There was a nationally televised Super Bowl Victory Parade for the Saints, carried live on CNN, ESPN, and all local network affiliates, also occurring during Carnival. Good Morning America shot from New Orleans before the Super Bowl. The French Quarter erupted into a Mardi Gras Day sized party, this time a Black & Gold party, immediately after the Super Bowl victory. The Saints Players interacted with the crowd to a much larger extent than in Mardi Gras parades. Many folks who attended the Saints Super Bowl Parade say it was the greatest parade experience of their lives. It created a giant traffic jam as tens of thousands of the Who Dat Nation from all over the region clogged the ferries & highways, attempting to reach the parade. Many in the traffic jam never made it, turning around after sitting in traffic for a couple of hours.

Saints Super Bowl Parade 2010

All throughout the Mardi Gras Season, including Fat Tuesday, Black & Gold Saints Gear & Costumes were worn to an incredible extent. People who never costume wore extensive Saints Gear & Black/Gold Costumes. Tons of black & gold fleur de lis beads, black & gold footballs & beads, I Believe hand towels, etc. were tossed off the floats. By the time the Saints made it to the Super Bowl, all the Mardi Gras stores were long out of Saints stuff.

Who Dat Ladies on St. Charles Avenue on Bacchus Sunday 2010

Another Saints related parade took place during Carnival 2010-A large number of men paraded in dresses to honor the late Buddy Diliberto’s pledge to wear one if the New Orleans Saints made it to the Super Bowl.

No review of Carnival 2010 would be complete without a salute to the Who Dat Nation! Who is the Who Dat Nation? Any enthusiastic Saints fan. Who Dat has been the rallying cry of the Saints for years. Taken from a line in a popular local Saints tune, Who Dat Say Gonna Beat Dem Saints? Who Dat? Who Dat? The national media picked up the over the top frenzy that Saints fans feel about their now winning team. During Good Morning America’s coverage of the Super Bowl, they did a split screen with a group of fans in each team’s city. The contrast between the wild, black & gold Who Dat Nation fans from New Orleans, jumping in the air and dancing with Kermit Ruffins playing in the forefront, next to the staid, laid back Indianapolis fans, was startling. Super Bowl XLIV was the highest rated TV program ever. Why was this game so popular? The obvious reason is the Who Dat Nation grew beyond the Superdome, beyond the New Orleans region into a national/international Football phenomena the scale of which only became apparent when the TV ratings for the Super Bowl came in. The top rated TV program ever means the Who Dat Nation may be the biggest NFL fan club ever!

More important than the top TV show ever is the unseen and unexpected effect the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras, Who Dat Nation, and the New Orleans election had on the national and international persona of New Orleans. 4 1/2 years post Katrina, the Crescent City was seen as a dangerous, needy, unique American City, and many visitors stayed away. The triple whammies of 9/11, Katrina/Rita, plus the recession had forced the tourist business on life support.

The positive PR from the incredible media coverage changed the image of New Orleans from Katrina ‘losers’ with our hands perpetually out, to magnanimous, safe, fun loving winners! The Who Dat Nation had corrected the Katrina Curse and righted NOLA’s reputation. This is a complex equation involving American Public Opinion, no easy thing to influence. The fact is, no one predicted this opinion shift, it couldn’t be forecast, all the right factors came together unexpectedly. God Bless America!

Buddy Diliberto "Wear a Dress When Saints Make Super Bowl" Parade

REX– The throw world is very competitive. Krewes strive to come up a novel throw each year. Rex is not immune to these pressures, as they have expanded their throws considerably in quality and quantity over the last few years. They threw two sizes of three colors of Rex Lieutenant Plush- purple, green & gold dolls- all high quality, like all their plush. They threw two sizes of plush white boeuf gras, a giant plush crown, and a nice purple, green & gold REX kerchief.

Rex is a Super Krewe that runs on cotton wagon chassis with wooden wheels from the 19th century.

Rex Wooden Float Wheel

Rex also threw a heavy gold replica of their original doubloon, to celebrate their role in bringing the doubloon to Mardi Gras. 50 years ago, Alvin Sharpe approached the Rex Captain and showed him the first prototype for a mass produced doubloon. The Captain was concerned about the risk to parade attendees when showered with doubloons. Sharpe took a handful of prototypes and threw at the Rex Captain. He was of course unhurt and that closed the deal for Mr. Alvin Sharpe.

Rex Replica Doubloon

Rex also played the green card. Each Rex cup has the recycling symbol, plus reuse, recycle, degradable and giacona.com. According to giacona.com, the degradable cups have plastic resin additive allows microbes to ingest and break down in landfill. Made in USA – lower carbon footprint than imported products. Made of FDA Approved material. In the opinion of this blog, this is a serious step up for Rex and the green movement within the Carnival World. Rex had another green claim, this one not nearly as serious a green step. The Rex beads’ strings are degradable also. When Rex beads get stuck in a tree, now the sunlight will degrade the string, and all the beads will fall to the street. Where are degradable beads?

Zulu– Zulu ran on time for the first time in memory, and moved so briskly down Jackson Avenue it was amazing. Zulu is a one of kind parade with great bands like the U.S. Marine Marching Band & St. Augustine Marching 100, plus great groups like the Budweiser Clydesdale Horses. They have the original handmade throw, the famed Zulu Coconut.

Zulu coconut & Muses shoe 2009

Zulu Parade on Canal Street

Proteus– Proteus entered the modern age of throws with its first Light Up Bead, a jelly like seahorse containing three red LED lights. The floats were build on cotton wagon wooden chassis with wooden wheels, very similar to the chassis REX rolls on. Royal Artists builds Proteus in the old fashioned way, giving them a look of Carnival long ago. The flambeaux are the original model, also from the 19th Century. Proteus had some of the finest looking floats of the season.

2010 Proteus Flambeaux Lighting

2010 Proteus Fish Float

Orpheus- Orpheus had its leader, Harry Connick, Jr. on his float this year, since the Saints won the Super Bowl he’s been in New Orleans. Super Bowl Champ Saints Head Coach, Sean Payton had his own float in Orpheus. We caught a 2.5 inch 2010 Snooks Eaglin Doubloon from a Orpheus Officer. Orpheus floats are brashy, very large, with a number of annual super floats- three part Leviathan Dragon, Trojan Horse, six part Smokey Mary Train and more. Orpheus doesn’t lack for music, as the krewe was co-founded by NOLA born Harry Connick, Jr.

Bacchus– Bacchus is the original Super Krewe, the first to feature major Celebrity Kings, the first with multi-unit floats, etc. Their annual Super floats- Kong Series, Bacchusauras, & Baccawoppa, etc. are icon Super Floats and the model for Super Floats all over Carnival parades.

Orpheus Float 2010

2010 Bacchus Float

Harry Connick, Jr. (with a 'twinkle' in his eye) on his 2010 Orpheus Float

Thoth– Thoth used the same green cup base as Rex with their own design and get the same credit for going green with a throw that’s abundant. From the unfinished Thoth web site: because it designs its parade route to pass in front of 14 institutions that care for persons with disabilities and illnesses, the men of Thoth have become known as the “Krewe of the Shut Ins”. Thoth spends their money on throws, as they go past all those institutions before turning on St. Charles and joining the traditional route. This is Thoth’s 63 Anniversary and one of the larger krewes with over 1,200 members.

Mid-City-Known for the brightly colored aluminum foil Mid-City uses to cover its floats, Mid-City was formed in 1933 and is the fifth oldest continuously parading krewe. 2010 was sunny, so the foil floats were shown to their best effect. Mid-City holds a band contest among bands that parade with them. For 2010, we counted six Memphis, Tennessee High School Marching Bands in Mid-City, which we found very interesting. All those buses, accommodations, and feeding necessary for that many teenagers is quite a logistics job, aside from running a major Mardi Gras parade and ball. My Mardi Gras hat is tipped to the Krewe of Mid-City for getting all those Memphis kids down here and back.

2010 MidCity King Float

Okeanos– Okeanos had a very big crowd this year, as part of the huge Bacchus Sunday on St. Charles Avenue. They usually start off Sunday, but were preceded this year by the Knights of Babylon, who moved to Sunday after inclement weather moved them from their original date of Thursday, February 11. Okeanos is another old krewe, this is their 60th year of parading.

Babylon-Babylon is designed by the fabulous Henri Schindler, who preserves the old paper mache float building techniques from long ago. Babylon was founded in 1939 and has expanded its throw repertoire substantially- they threw Babylon backpacks, jester heads & hats, and a Light Up bead as well. This krewe lost a good number of bands because of scheduling problems due to their original date rain out. Babylon is a night parade lighted by flambeaux that ran in bright sunshine, obviously without their flambeaux.

Endymion-Endymion is the biggest of all Mardi Gras Krewes with over 2,400 members. Endymion does it just a little bit better than everyone else. Endymion didn’t have the Saints Quarterback or Coach, but the Saints Owner Tom Benson and his wife Gayle as Grand Marshalls. Endymion is the only parade that rolls through Mid City and down Canal Street. The crowds for Endymion are positively huge. Endymion has some annual special Super Floats, such as Captain Eddie’s SS Endymion Steamboat. The Budweiser Clydesdale Horses and The St. Augustine Purple Knights were featured in the parade, along with more than two dozen other Marching Bands.

Tucks– Tucks was formed by a few college students a few decades ago, and they have never lost their sophomoric potty humor- their King sits atop a giant toilet! One of their most popular throws each year is a small toilet that squirts water. Tucks is the only krewe to throw toilet paper with their logo on each sheet. Their Friar Tuck stuffed dolls (as opposed to ‘plush’ dolls) remain an icon Tucks throw and they always throw wooden nickels. Tucks is a satirical krewe that loves to tell City Government that they really could do a better job.

2010 Tucks Toilet Float & the Toilet Guy

Iris- Iris is the oldest all female krewe in New Orleans, as they formed in 1917, but didn’t parade until 1959. It’s a fairly large krewe, with around 800+ riders. Iris allows some men to ride on their floats, which is OK with me! Iris is a generous krewe who puts some money into their costumes. There used to be Venus, another Orleans parading women’s krewe, and there used to be Shangri-La, another large female from St. Bernard Parish that ended up on St. Charles Avenue before ending their big parade, and morphing into a French Quarter Buggy parade. That leaves Iris and Muses as the only female krewes still parading down St. Charles.

Name another krewe that throws half that much stuff with their logo on it. Muses sells nothing to their membership without their ‘M’ on it. Muses has several signature floats, including The Shoe, The Sirens, and The Bathtub. The only all female nighttime parading organization, their feminine influence is obvious throughout the parade. Since Muses had to reschedule due to bad weather, some of their many bands couldn’t accompany them. Muses is one of the largest krewes to parade down St. Charles Avenue, with more than 1,000 members.

Muses sets the standard with wacko marching groups (except for KdV) with such groups as The Pussy Footers, Muff-a-Lottas, 610 Stompers, and Camel Toe Lady Steppers.

Morpheus– Morpheus is a krewe on the move. Over the last few years, Morpheus has grown from a small krewe to a mid-sized krewe, and in this economy post Katrina that is not an easy thing to do. Krewe dissolution and parade cancellation seems to occur more often.

D’Etat– D’tat has been around 15 years, and in that time they have carved themselves a niche in storied Mardi Gras Krewe History. They won Throw of the Year Honors from us last year for their functional Super Throw, the large, full color lenticular cup. They are as secretive as the older Krewes. Their ‘King’ is called ‘Dictator’ and that’s one identity they never reveal.

2009 D'Etat Float

D’Etat was also one of the very first krewes to toss a D’Etat Light Up Bead from their floats. Now those Beads are positively the hottest type of bead on the market. Even the old line Krewe Proteus threw a Light Up Bead in 2010. The Budweiser Clydesdale Horses paraded with D’Etat this year. They also host very good NOLA area High School Marching Bands, including St. Augustine and Brother Martin.

D’Etat also skewered the crap out of outgoing Mayor, soon to be garbageman Ray Nagin, an admitted very easy target. Virtually all the satirical krewes had to lob some major shots at such a broad target as the goodby-in-under- 70 days Nagin.

Hermes- I have always like Hermes, they are an old line krewe which began parading in 1937. Hermes now is the oldest continuously parading nighttime parade. They have modern throws, such as Light Up Beads and Plush. Hermes owns some very nice floats. A mid sized krewe with over 600 members, Hermes really surprised with the best looking floats I’ve seen from Hermes in many a year.

Druids- The Ancient Druids started parading in 1998. There was an earlier Druids Krewe, that parading after REX from 1922-1935. They are a very secretive organization who calls their King Archdruid. You have to be a member of another Carnival organization if you want to join Druids. They don’t have a ball, only their parade. There’s no other royalty chosen, the Archdruid is it. Druids is the only krewe to parade alone during the week. They are not interested in growing their membership; it’s limited to 200, which isn’t big in the world of Carnival krewes.

King Arthur– Their King and Queen are King Arthur and Queen Guenevere. They started out as a West Bank parade, before moving to the traditional St. Charles route. King Arthur threw black & gold Super Bowl doubloons, though I didn’t see any while watching this parade. They had some very good bands, including St. Augustine Marching Knights and Warren Easton High School.

Carrollton-One of the oldest parading krewes, organization began in 1924. They had some problems right before WWII and stopped parading until 1947, when they resumed. Carrollton used to parade in the Carrollton neighborhood, changed to a downtown route before ending up on St. Charles Avenue, using the traditional route. Historically, they were the first krewe to use tractors to pull the floats instead of mules. Carrollton helped the first Metairie parade, Krewe of Zeus, to organize. This year Carrollton had some of the best weather of the entire Carnival season. They had several notable bands, including Jesuit & Brother Martin High School.

Pygmalion- Pygmalion moved from Friday night to Saturday morning. The St. Augustine Marching Knights led off this krewe in style this year and the Warren Easton High School Band was very good also. Pygmalion began in 2000, and is a coed krewe. Arnie Fielkow, just elected New Orleans Councilman at Large in the first primary, was also General Manager of the New Orleans Saints. He’s a better Councilman by far than he was General Manager of the Saints. It wasn’t until he moved over the the Council and Mickey Loomis took for a few years that the Saints won the Lombardi Trophy by winning the Super Bowl.

Sparta- The Knights of Sparta made certain changes to their parade that surprised me. No flambeaux, when they have always used flambeaux for their night parades. The King’s Float is mule drawn, but the mule had trouble keeping up with incredible pace of the floats. The bands had to practically run to keep up. We saw the entire parade, soup to nuts, in way under 1 hour, easily a world’s record in the fastest Mardi Gras parade. Sparta began as a Ball only krewe in 1951 and began parading in Orleans Parish in 1981. On the positive side, Sparta had more than double the number of bands this year than last year, which is very encouraging.

Ponchartrain- Now in its 35th year, Pontchartrain began parading near Lake Ponchartrain before moving uptown in 1991. This year the parade featured the cream of all local girl marching bands, Xavier Prep and St. Mary’s Academy. The krewe features both men and women. I remember when the krewe used to march in the lake front area, they had a giant paper mache Crawfish float that was named Mr. Mudbug, as I recall.

2010 Ponchartrain King/Queen Float

2010 Krewe of Ponchartrain Title Float

Oshun- Oshun was founded in 1997. The year after Hurricane Katrina, Oshun didn’t parade. The wonderful singer Charmaine Neville was the Oshun Celebrity Grand Marshal for 2010. This krewe honors Oshun, a goddess of a religion practiced by descendants of West African Yoruba slaves in Brazil, Haiti and Cuba.

Mardi Gras – Fat Tuesday – is the day before Lent begins. In 1512, the Butchers’ Guild of Paris created the tradition of leading a fattened ox, the “Boeuf Gras”, through the streets to celebrate the last feast before the rigors of Lent.

In its earliest form, Mardi Gras is probably linked to pagan rites celebrating the return of spring. Ancient Rome’s Lupercalia, a lusty fertility festival, was celebrated yearly on February 15. The young Catholic Church, unable to obliterate the pagan festivals, adopted and purified many: Carnival as a pre-Lenten celebration was born.

Pierre LeMoyne Sieur d’Iberville, arriving at the Mississippi River on Mardi Gras eve, 1699, named his encampment “Bayou and Pointe de Mardi Gras.” In the 1700’s, the French settlers continued to celebrate Mardi Gras.

Masquerades were regulated on a discretionary basis during the years Spain ruled New Orleans. Whenever the peace was threatened, a short-term police ban on masking was invoked. Balls, rather than parades, were favored. The Quadroon balls, known for their beautiful women, and most spectacular during Carnival, thrived during the end of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries.

Because of the French “Boeuf Gras” tradition, it is safe to assume that New Orleanians paraded before the newspaper accounts of 1837-38, which record the processions of maskers in decorated carriages, on horseback and afoot. Mention of the Mobile, Alabama Cowbellions as Carnival participants also appears in newspapers about this time.

By the 1850’s, troublemakers had invaded the ranks of the maskers and were tossing dirt, flour, and even lye at the spectators instead of the traditional dragees (sugar coated fruits and nuts) and bon-bons, leading to a city ordinance against the “throws” and a proposed ban on parading. While Mardi Gras parades were declining in quality, there were definite bright spots; the carefully planned 1852 parade by the Company of Bedouins is considered the finest prior to Comus.

The parades of 1855 and 1856 were especially bleak, but events were taking place that would vastly improve Carnival. In the early 1850’s, a number of individuals from Mobile moved to New Orleans. Some of them had been members of the Mobile Cowbellion De Rakin Society, the first parading New Year’s Eve club. They missed the New Year’s Eve parades back home, and after experiencing a few of the New Orleans Mardi Gras processions, decided to form a secret Mardi Gras club in New Orleans similar to Mobile’s New Year’s Eve organizations.

Led by Joseph Ellison and Thad Smith, they obtained costumes from the Cowbellions and the Strikers Independent Society (another Mobile club) for their new Carnival parade in New Orleans. Thus the Mistick Krewe of Comus was born, legitimizing New Orleans Mardi Gras parades. Attended by torch bearers, Comus rode on one float, Satan on another, and approximately 75 devil maskers cavorted on foot.

After the Civil War, during Reconstruction, the Twelfth Night Revelers (1870), Rex, and Momus (both 1872) were formed. Rex introduced daytime parading to Carnival. Ten years later, Proteus was organized, followed by the Jefferson City Buzzards (a marching club) in 1890. Zulu, a black krewe, originally a spoof of Rex, was formed in 1909.

Alla, Mid-City, Hermes, and the first truck parade, the Elks Orleanians, began in the 1930’s, and the first parading women’s krewe, Venus, preceded World War II. After the war, many new organizations, the majority from the suburbs, began parading. The number of major parades doubled and tripled, reaching a high of more than fifty.

In the early 1950’s, mules were phased out of float pulling, being replaced by tractors. 1960 saw the birth of a major new throw, the aluminum doubloon. Carnival 1969 was the inaugural parade of Bacchus, the first krewe to have jumbo “Super Floats” and a celebrity non-local King.

The krewe of Mardi Gras first used decorated paper cups as a throw in 1975. The next year, Alla introduced a decorated plastic cup, which for a couple of decades became the most popular throw. That cup was made by a local company, Giacona Container Corp.

1979 was the year of the infamous Orleans Parish Police strike, resulting in the cancellation of most major Orleans parades and the temporary move of others to the suburbs. Carnival recovered from this ordeal

Momus, Comus and Proteus stopped parading in the 1990’s, but continue to hold masked balls. Proteus returned to the parade route a number of years later. It is said that a number of Comus and Momus members ride in a relatively new parade, Chaos.

The 1990’s saw the diversification of throws, including a wider assortment of small toys, and a huge assortment of stuffed animals, and some new throws, including lighted beads. Doubloons have lost some favor, but still exist in small numbers. In the last few years, a number of krewes throughout the metro New Orleans area have stopped parading. The reasons are many, including a shortage of krewe members, and the high cost of krewe dues, throws, and parade insurance.

The new century saw a standardization of parade routes, with most krewes rolling down St. Charles Avenue. August 29, 2005 brought Hurricane Katrina, which severely impacted Carnival. The season was shortened by 20%, less parades rolled, the parades were shorter with less floats and bands. Many hotel rooms were not available.

Want to know more about the history and traditions of the New Orleans Mardi Gras? Read these fine books: Mardi Gras, by Robert Tallant (Doubleday & Co.,1949); New Orleans Masquerade: Chronicles of Carnival, by Arthur Burton LaCour (Pelican Publishing Co.,1952); Mardi Gras! A Celebration, by Mitchell Osborne and Errol Laborde (Picayune Press, 1981); The Mistick Krewe, by Perry Young, (Carnival Press, 1931); and If Ever I Cease to Love: One Hundred Years of Rex, by Charles Dufour (School of Design, 1970).